This fact would be hotly contested by some of our fellow citizens, who strongly believe in “American exceptionalism”. To be perfectly accurate, though, NO country is the best in the world at everything, since that’s virtually impossible.

America IS a pretty good place to live, and we ARE a world leader in a number of areas.

Our rate of 1792 births per million to women under 20 is significantly higher than the country that’s number 2, Slovakia, which has 1121 births per million. Finland’s rate of teen pregnancy is 288 per million.

Due to the fact that those young teens are more likely to be forced to live in poverty, we are #34 in the world in terms of child poverty, due to the fact that 23% of our children live in poverty. The best country in the world when it comes to child poverty?

Finland, with a child poverty rate of 3%

Reducing child poverty in our country not only would improve our school system, it would also improve our economy. The Children's Defense Fund has estimated that childhood poverty in our country costs the economy $500 billion a year. That's nearly twice as much as the GDP of Finland, which has the 41st largest economy in the world - but the world's best school system.

Due to the fact that an awful lot of those early pregnancies are unplanned events, the young girls about to enter motherhood don’t usually receive proper prenatal care, which results in an unusually high number of premature births.

12% of our births are premature, a far worst percentage than any other developed nation. The best country in the world (at 4%) is Belarus, but Finland isn’t far behind, at 5.5%.

Children that are born prematurely have a higher likelihood of physical and mental disabilities, and a higher propensity to behavioral problems, which makes them more difficult to educate. As a result, even if our school system were the best in the world, we’re already behind the eight ball when our kids enter kindergarten.

Our national K-12 school system is the best that it’s ever been, but you’d never know that by talking with the average American, which is why we have tried numerous “reforms” over the years, none of which have been very successful. Sadly, both political parties are to blames, since George Bush’s No Child Left Behind has essentially been duplicated by Barack Obama’s Race to the Top.

1) Vouchers and charter schools (ESPECIALLY for profit charter schools) are not the proper solution, since they divert funds from public schools that are already under funded by state legislators, who would rather give tax breaks to businesses than invest in its future leaders. Arizona is a prime example of misguided priorities, since the state has historically been one of the worst at funding its school system. In addition, it has the highest percentage in the nation (15%) of its children in charter schools, which means that the state’s non charter public schools receive 15% less in funding than they would otherwise receive.

2) Closing schools is not a proper solution, since schools can’t improve if they are closed. When new schools are opened to replace the old schools, they generally don’t perform better than their predecessors.

3) “Parent trigger” methods don’t work, since they transform what should be a cooperative experience to one that is confrontational.

4) Continuous testing of results in reading, math, and science isn’t the best solution either, since they divert resources from other vital courses that can‘t be tested, such as art, literature, world history, foreign language, civics, physical education, and economics. The country that has the best schools in the world, Finland, doesn’t give national tests in math, science, and reading until its students are about to enter college.

5) Attacking teachers unions and demonizing teachers (are you listening, Scott Walker?) is a truly bone headed idea, since it demoralizes professional teachers, leads to an increase in class sizes, and causes a higher turnover of seasoned veterans than would occur otherwise.

Why does Finland have the best schools in the world? There are a number of reasons, but here’s a few of them:

1) Like other Nordic countries (Norway and Sweden) Finland has a sustained, long term investment and prioritization of early childhood development, and universal pre-school is a societal norm.

2) In 1970, Finland overhauled its educational system. It raised the admission standards for its teacher education colleges, making them so selective that today only 10% of those who apply are accepted. In Finland, teachers are highly respected, and are as highly esteemed as those in the medical profession.

3) Finland does not use vouchers or a charter school system, and Finns boast that there are good public schools in every city, town, and village

4) Finland does not give its teachers merit pay, and does not utilize the system of rewards and punishment that we do.

5) Every child in the Finnish school system gets one meal a day in school, and each school has a medical professional on staff.

All of the Nordic countries excel in an area called the Social Progress Index. Finland comes in at #7 on the most recent list, and the United States comes in at #16.

Due to the fact that the Nordic countries have advanced social programs, it is widely assumed that their taxes are higher than ours. The reality, though, is that tax rates are LOWER in Finland than they are in America. The MAXIMUM personal income tax rate in Finland is 30%, and the maximum corporate income tax rate is 20%. In the United States, those figures are 39.6%.5 and 35%, respectively.

Our public education system isn’t without hope, and it can gradually be made better if we take some commonsense steps. For starters, we can follow Finland’s lead in at least some areas, and at least one idea (universal pre-school) has gotten some traction in recent years.

We can also demand that the people that lead our educational systems are qualified for their job. Arizona’s current Superintendent of Public Instruction does not have any degrees in education, and her only teaching experience comes from a stained glass class that she once taught. She was elected primarily due to her support from the Tea Party, and she narrowly defeated a professional educator who was far more qualified for the job.

Her immediate predecessor was elected primarily due to his support from an organization that operates charter schools. Like his successor, he does not have an education degree, and he’s never taught a class of any kind.

“Just Say No” was not a successful slogan during our war on drugs, and it’s equally ineffective when it comes to teen pregnancy. The state in our country that has the lowest rate of teen births is New Hampshire, which has an age of consent of 18, and mandatory birth control education, starting in elementary school. The state that has the highest teen pregnancy rate, Mississippi, has an age of consent of 16, and has no mandatory sex education or sexually transmitted disease education. When sex education IS taught, it places a high emphasis on abstinence. In Mississippi,
teachers are not allowed to discuss the use of condoms, even though 76% of Mississippi teenagers report having sex before the end of high school.

Many of the references in the article above are drawn from a book titled “Reign of Error”, written by a woman named Diane Ravitch. She currently is a research professor of education at New York University, and she was appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and 2001. “Reign of Error” is her 11th book about education, and it’s worth reading, even though its numerous facts and figures mean that it won’t be a quick read by most of us.

You may also know that I’ve long been a “car nut”, which led me to (eventually) become a car salesman later in life, when I spent nearly 8 years selling cars in 2 different states. The irony of my car sales career is that I did not own a car of my own during my entire sales experience (and still don’t) but managed to sell 2 cars to immediate family members during my career, and more than 600 to other people (some of whom I sold to more than once).

Common sense would tell you that there’s isn’t much of a connection between cancer and cars (the BIG “C” and the little “c”) but I learned this morning that there IS - at least in Arizona.

One of the car auctions that is held early in the year in Arizona is the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, which is being held this weekend in Scottsdale. This morning’s Arizona Republic had an interesting article about it:

The roots of the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction go all the way back to 1972, when Russ Jackson and Tom Barrett organized a fund-raising car auction for local charities. Originally called “Fiesta del Auto Excellence”, it was later re-named “Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction”, and re-named again in 2006 to “Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction” in 2006.

Russ Jackson died at the age of 77 in 1993, after a long struggle with colon cancer. Two years later, his son Brian died of the same disease, at the age of 49, and control of the company passed to his brother Craig, who is now the chairman and CEO of the company.

Like the original company started by Russ Jackson in 1972, the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction is a HUGE fund raiser for charity. Since its inception, the company has raised over $67,000,000 for various charities, one of which is T-Gen, an organization that supports the Barrett-Jackson Cancer Research Fund.

Although the auction has always sold an interesting collection of automobiles (some of which have benefited the charity more than once) this year’s auctions will feature two cars that were built by the famed hot rodder Boyd Coddington, who died in 2008.

My dream car in high school was a ‘57 Chevrolet (which I never actually owned) but none of the cars that I dreamed about were anything like the “Chezoom” that will be auctioned off this weekend.

Another Coddington creation that will be auctioned off this weekend is a
1936 Delahaye (nicknamed “whatthehaye”) that last sold at auction in 2005 - for $550.000.

I’ve never been to the Barrett-Jackson auction, and it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be able to afford to buy one of their vehicles, but it’s encouraging to see that car collecting, a passionate hobby for an awful lot of people, can also be a vehicle (no pun intended) for the good of society.

If you’d like to look at some of the other vehicles that will be auctioned, just click on the link below. You’ll also notice that the link will actually allow you to actually BID on the cars (you can always dream, can’t you?)

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About Me

I sold cars for The Autobarn of Evanston from February of 2005 until my retirement in July of 2011. Immediately prior to that, I was a college level English instructor in Guangzhou, China.
Being Irish, I have long felt a compulsion to put down my thoughts on paper. After one of my customers published a few of my stories on HER blog site (Dwana), I eventually figured out how to publish stories on my own site. The first story (To Hell and back - on a bicycle) appeared on March 4,2009.
The inspiration for the title is a man named Clayton Klein, an elderly Michigan man who walks from Paradise (Michigan) to Hell (Michigan) every year (a distance of 420 miles) to raise money for charity. His story, as well the bicycle ride that my daughter and I undertook in the summer of 2007, provided the starting point for what became the site titled tohell-and back.